The Danish shipping company Maersk announced its intention to lay off ten thousand employees to maintain its profitability in the shipping market, which it sees as experiencing a contraction that exceeds its previous expectations.
The company’s CEO Vincent Clerc said that the number of employees in the company is being reduced due to low freight rates and intense competition in the field of maritime transport.
“If you look at the volume of orders, and what will happen in the coming years, I think we will see a very compressed and subdued environment in the next two to three years,”Clerc told Bloomberg Television.
Maersk said in a statement yesterday that it expects to save USD 600 million through job write-offs, and the Copenhagen-based company also intends to stop the share repurchase program for 2024 and limit its capital expenditures during 2023 and 2024.
Container shipping companies are facing a sudden decline in their profits after the record profits achieved during 2021 and 2022 in light of the increasing demand for consumer goods during the corona pandemic, as well as the rise in shipping prices during that period due to the decline in the supply of cargo ships.
According to a report issued by the United Nations conference on trade and Development UNCTAD Maritime Transport for 2023, global maritime transport still faces many challenges, including strict trade policies, geopolitical tensions and changes in globalization patterns; however, despite this, it remains a resilient sector.
The UNCTAD report, published last month, predicts a sustained and moderate growth in maritime trade volumes in the medium term (2024-2028).
